Nurses' union says Health Minister 'misinformed' over COVID-19 vaccinations

The Malta Union of Nurses (MUMN) said it was “surprised, and at the same time disappointed” with claims made by Health Minister Chris Fearne that 50 COVID-19 vaccine doses were lost because of a union directive.

The union accused the health minister of misguiding the public through false information.

On Thursday, Fearne told the media that between 50 to 60 doses were lost on Wednesday due to delays resulting from directives issued by the MUMN.

Fearne claimed that procedures regarding the mixing of vaccines changed after the union issued directives. He said that the directive limited the number of vials that are reconstituted on site. So the government started reconstituting several vaccines from a central location, then taking the vaccines to the centres.

As a result, a delay of a few hours in delivering doses resulted in these being lost, he said.

But the MUMN disputed the minister's version. "It is quite clear that whoever is informing the Deputy Prime Minister has no clue about the what is happening at the Primary Health Care Department (PCD). There are no MUMN industrial directives on the COVID vaccination whatsoever."

"A meeting with the CEO PHCD was organised which resulted in an agreement, and an internal memo was published by Primary Health Care Department to all staff, stating that the reconstitution and the administration of the COVID vaccinations should not exceed 80 doses a day at every health centre," MUMN said.

The union said that the same PHCD ignored its own memo and issued appointments on Thursday well exceeding 80 doses at the Floriana Health Centre.

"No COVID doses were thrown away at Floriana or at any other health centre," the union said.

MUMN said that it had been informed on Wednesday evening that doctors were ordered to throw away 58 COVID doses since they were reconstituted without having an actual appointment.

"58 vaccinations had been reconstituted for nothing. This again shows that minister Fearne was not again well informed... for reasons that MUMN is not aware of, the doctors who accepted to give the vaccines the day before, on Thursday refused or did not turn up to give the doses," the union said.

The union said the appointments for vaccination were not being distributed evenly between the various health centres and a disproportionate of inoculations were scheduled for the Floriana health centre.

"Most health centres had a negligible and minimum number of vaccinations to administer on Thursday and could have easily managed the extra doses given to Floriana. The Poala Health Centre, a major health centre, had only six vaccinations to be administered while Floriana had 120. This shows a lack of coordination and logistics," the MUMN said.

The union urged the minister to identify the problems within primary healthcare and address them, rather then blame the MUMN for its shortcomings.